Campus News 2011

For Immediate ReleaseJuly 19, 2011

Schreiner U history professors bring Civil War to life on TPR

This year marks the sesquicentennial of the start of the American Civil War, also known as The War Between the States and The War of Northern Aggression, depending on where you live relative to the Mason-Dixon line. In recognition of the 150th anniversary, two Schreiner history professors have produced a series of audio vignettes about the war for Texas Public Radio, with a focus on the Texas Hill Country, when that is appropriate. Dr. John Huddleston, professor of history—with help from Dr. Jeremy Roethler, assistant professor of history—is the person behind “This Week in the Civil War.” More than 150 programs have been produced so far.

“The Civil War series is an exciting, yet challenging endeavor, involving personalities, issues and events of the 1860s,” Huddleston said. “Writing these vignettes, I have tried to focus on the human side of the Civil War and I have come to an even greater appreciation of the complex political and social issues that faced America at the time of the Civil War. And I am humbled by the sacrifice of Americans both in the North and the South during this tragic era.”

Texas was one of the six states that immediately followed South Carolina in seceding from the union. As a permanent monument to the torn loyalties of the Hill Country, Comfort, Texas, has the only monument to Union dead south of the Mason-Dixon line.

“We will chronicle the travails of Hill Country Germans who remained loyal to the Union,” Huddleston said. “We have all heard how families were torn asunder by conflicting loyalties during the Civil War. That was true even for the family of our university’s founder. Charles Schreiner volunteered and served the Confederacy during the war, while his brothers were Unionist in sympathy and one was killed at the Nueces River as he sought to escape Confederate conscription by fleeing to Mexico. The Civil War affected the lives of all Americans, even in the Hill Country of Texas. During this sesquicentennial celebration of the American Civil War, those stories need to be told. I am honored to do that and to represent Schreiner University, in conjunction with the fine folk at Texas Public Radio.”